[inkhead]

The powerbooks that have the ati mobility radeon 9700 AKA the one I bought yesterday HAS ON BOARD DECODING OF h.264 content and other mpeg4 formats to offload it from the CPU. But does Apple use this? NO OF COURSE NOT, instead I watch HD and it's still choppy on my brand new powerbook, when all htey would have HAD to do was write some freaking drivers.!!!!!

[chromos]

Where did you hear that the 9700 has h.264 decoding? I thought that was only demonstrated with their R520...

[TailsToo]

Never heard about that either...

[John123]

Pretty sure you didn't hear about it because it's not correct. I believe you're thinking of the X600, which would have been sweet had Apple elected to use them.

The Mobility Radeon 9700 was decent back in the day...but that day was a loooong time ago. It's been around for nearly two years now.

[mduell]

This has nothing to do with drivers. Your hardware does not support H.264 decoding.

The new X1xxx family of ATi chips has onboard H.264 decoding.
The older Xxxx and 9xxx families do not (they only do MPEG, MPEG2, and WMV acceleration).

Originally Posted by John123

Pretty sure you didn't hear about it because it's not correct. I believe you're thinking of the X600, which would have been sweet had Apple elected to use them.

See above. X600 does not support H.264 decoding.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by inkhead

The powerbooks that have the ati mobility radeon 9700 AKA the one I bought yesterday HAS ON BOARD DECODING OF h.264 content and other mpeg4 formats to offload it from the CPU. But does Apple use this? NO OF COURSE NOT, instead I watch HD and it's still choppy on my brand new powerbook, when all htey would have HAD to do was write some freaking drivers.!!!!!

How bout' you pull your head out of your ass?

Why is it that every one and their mother comes on a forum to rant and rave about how they do not like a product. Are you hoping Apple is going to read this and make an massive executive decision tonight because you are unhappy with your purchase?

Think about it this way... you already bought it! Hmmm.... what would motivate Apple to spend more money on you when you are already buying their product?

I don't understand what all the whining is about on this board. Apple does not care about you in the slightest, they care about their shareholders. It's really all that simple. Are you an owner of Apple computer? If so, you have channels to go through, i.e. selling. BUT, if not, you have no say in the company. In fact, the people that make the decisions don't even care about your opinion. What makes you think that you are so smart and gifted to come in here and single handedly tell a company with thousands of decision makers and well paid executives that you are smarter than all of them and know how to really make Apple profitable... Maybe if they'd just make the PowerBooks a little faster? Ridiculous. I'd love to see all your market research... or wait... are you just basing this off your own personal experience and opinions? That's a way to run a company.

The fact is, it is people's full time jobs to make these decisions. Obviously they have decided that the current configurations are the sweet spot for marketing to the consumer, profitability for Apple, shipping and inventory control and a myriad of other factors you know nothing about and have no control over. Return your computer or get over it.

[Wiskedjak]

Precisely. This has absolutely nothing to do with Apple disabling features on the PowerBook's video card. Rather, it's about Apple using a mediocre card on a top end laptop.

[Helmling]

Originally Posted by Wiskedjak

Precisely. This has absolutely nothing to do with Apple disabling features on the PowerBook's video card. Rather, it's about Apple using a mediocre card on a top end laptop.

Yeah, but what the heck's with your sig?

Creationism isn't a theory. It's a set of convoluted and absurd rationalizations of a literalist and narrow reading of the Old Testament.

Evolution is not a theory either. It is a fact. Life changes. That's evolution.

Now, what people usually mean by "evolution" is The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Now that's a theory, but not it's not just any theory. It's the theory that String theory and Relativity and Big Bang wish they could be, or rather, their proponents wish their theories could be half as elegant and half as well supported.

Ok, sorry, know that's off-topic, but it's a pet peeve of mine. Our hobbled science curriculum has produced so many people who are grossly ignorant, and I wouldn't want them to misinterpret your signature there.

[Rev2Liv]

Originally Posted by Fusion

How bout' you pull your head out of your ass?

Why is it that every one and their mother comes on a forum to rant and rave about how they do not like a product. Are you hoping Apple is going to read this and make an massive executive decision tonight because you are unhappy with your purchase?

Think about it this way... you already bought it! Hmmm.... what would motivate Apple to spend more money on you when you are already buying their product?

I don't understand what all the whining is about on this board. Apple does not care about you in the slightest, they care about their shareholders. It's really all that simple. Are you an owner of Apple computer? If so, you have channels to go through, i.e. selling. BUT, if not, you have no say in the company. In fact, the people that make the decisions don't even care about your opinion. What makes you think that you are so smart and gifted to come in here and single handedly tell a company with thousands of decision makers and well paid executives that you are smarter than all of them and know how to really make Apple profitable... Maybe if they'd just make the PowerBooks a little faster? Ridiculous. I'd love to see all your market research... or wait... are you just basing this off your own personal experience and opinions? That's a way to run a company.

The fact is, it is people's full time jobs to make these decisions. Obviously they have decided that the current configurations are the sweet spot for marketing to the consumer, profitability for Apple, shipping and inventory control and a myriad of other factors you know nothing about and have no control over. Return your computer or get over it.

While I agree that there are a lot of whiners and second guessers and yes it is Steve Job'f ull time job to tell us what we need, if you stand by your contention that Apple is only concerned with its shareholders, than we must all be in trouble.

Since Steve Job's return in 1996, sales of Macintosh computers have declined in unit sales every year with a slight pickup in 2005. Hopefully this trend continues.

While shareholders have enjoyed healthy returns in the past 5 year period, marketshare and sales have dwindled.

While Apple is unlike any other PC vendor, it needs to start adopting traits like frequent updates and price cuts.

Also Steve needs to stop grand standing with his smoke and mirror shows and focus on business development, alliances, and affordability. What happens behind the scenes is more important than what happens on stage.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by Rev2Liv

While I agree that there are a lot of whiners and second guessers and yes it is Steve Job'f ull time job to tell us what we need, if you stand by your contention that Apple is only concerned with its shareholders, than we must all be in trouble.

Since Steve Job's return in 1996, sales of Macintosh computers have declined in unit sales every year with a slight pickup in 2005. Hopefully this trend continues.

While shareholders have enjoyed healthy returns in the past 5 year period, marketshare and sales have dwindled.

While Apple is unlike any other PC vendor, it needs to start adopting traits like frequent updates and price cuts.

Also Steve needs to stop grand standing with his smoke and mirror shows and focus on business development, alliances, and affordability. What happens behind the scenes is more important than what happens on stage.

I'm not sure it's really Apple's strategy to gain all the marketshare they can at any cost. I think we'd be seeing some highly different stuff if that was the case. The fact is, that right now Apple is an extremely profitable company for the owners, and that is basically all that matters. That's the primary goal of ANY business and right now Apple happens to be doing a fairly amazing job at it.

Again, I'm not going to eat my own words and claim to know Apple's strategy, but the public information available does suggest that marketshare is NOT their top priority. For instance, Aston Martin's have a fairly low marketshare compared to all cars manufactured, BUT, they are a profitable company, and THAT is what keeps them alive, not marketshare.

[John123]

Originally Posted by mduell

This has nothing to do with drivers. Your hardware does not support H.264 decoding.

The new X1xxx family of ATi chips has onboard H.264 decoding.
The older Xxxx and 9xxx families do not (they only do MPEG, MPEG2, and WMV acceleration).



See above. X600 does not support H.264 decoding.

You're right - it doesn't. Thanks for the correction.

[Randman]

Apple's just biding time. Steve Jobs knows he needs a home run with the first Intel offerings and I'd bet a large amount of money that he's pushing everyone at Apple to achieve that.

[inkhead]

all i know is, I just dropped $2800 on a powerbook that goes choppy on 720p HDTV video, and I have a $1800 dell laptop that has a graphics card that Apple wouldn't dream of shipping in the powerbook.

I hope when Apple switches to x86 they stop messing around and give us graphics cards that are from the last half of the decade.

[inkhead]

I was told directly by ATI, that the 9700 had hardware assist mpeg4 decoding build onboard. This hardware assist while not completely hardware for h.264 would speed up playback and take on some of the processors cycles sent to the CPU. Apple DOES NOT use these features, and forces the CPU to do all the work. Call it too lazy to write drivers, or just being stupid. but when your top processor is 1.67ghz you use every option you have, like hardware assisted on the crappy 9700 you put in your laptops.

Originally Posted by chromos

Where did you hear that the 9700 has h.264 decoding? I thought that was only demonstrated with their R520...

[mduell]

Originally Posted by inkhead

I was told directly by ATI, that the 9700 had hardware assist mpeg4 decoding build onboard. This hardware assist while not completely hardware for h.264 would speed up playback and take on some of the processors cycles sent to the CPU. Apple DOES NOT use these features, and forces the CPU to do all the work. Call it too lazy to write drivers, or just being stupid. but when your top processor is 1.67ghz you use every option you have, like hardware assisted on the crappy 9700 you put in your laptops.

Either the ATi agent who told you was incorrect, or you misunderstood.

The ATi Radeon 9700 only supports hardware acceleration of MPEG1 and MPEG2 decoding.
The X-series added MPEG-4 (simple profile only!) hardware acceleration and WMV9 decoding assist.
Only ATi's newest cards (the X1 series) supports H.264 hardware acceleration.

Note that these accelerations are only used under Windows when you use ATi's (crappy) media player; they are not supported system-wide.

[John123]

Originally Posted by inkhead

I was told directly by ATI, that the 9700 had hardware assist mpeg4 decoding build onboard. This hardware assist while not completely hardware for h.264 would speed up playback and take on some of the processors cycles sent to the CPU. Apple DOES NOT use these features, and forces the CPU to do all the work. Call it too lazy to write drivers, or just being stupid. but when your top processor is 1.67ghz you use every option you have, like hardware assisted on the crappy 9700 you put in your laptops.

It's not a driver issue. See all the posts above. H.264 decoding is not supported by the Mobility Radeon 9700. Period, end of discussion.

If you need that, either get a G5 or buy a PC laptop.

[Rev2Liv]

Originally Posted by Fusion

I'm not sure it's really Apple's strategy to gain all the marketshare they can at any cost. I think we'd be seeing some highly different stuff if that was the case. The fact is, that right now Apple is an extremely profitable company for the owners, and that is basically all that matters. That's the primary goal of ANY business and right now Apple happens to be doing a fairly amazing job at it.

Again, I'm not going to eat my own words and claim to know Apple's strategy, but the public information available does suggest that marketshare is NOT their top priority. For instance, Aston Martin's have a fairly low marketshare compared to all cars manufactured, BUT, they are a profitable company, and THAT is what keeps them alive, not marketshare.

Even Aston Martin after being purhased by Ford increased unit production while lowering costs by sharing development costs and taking platforms and engines out of the Ford parts bin.

I never really thought Apple was a shareholder driven company. If Apple did listen to Wallstreet, Mac OS X would have been licensed, Steve Jobs ousted, and a stop to everything that we know as Apple.

That being said, Apple as an on-going concern as you indicated needs to increase unit sales to generate higher revenue and profit to justify its stock price.

Since stockprice is a function of perceived apprecation based on many metrics, stock price is often based on future earnings and forecast and the ability to meet/beat those forecasts.

[Fusion]

Originally Posted by Rev2Liv

Even Aston Martin after being purhased by Ford increased unit production while lowering costs by sharing development costs and taking platforms and engines out of the Ford parts bin.

I never really thought Apple was a shareholder driven company. If Apple did listen to Wallstreet, Mac OS X would have been licensed, Steve Jobs ousted, and a stop to everything that we know as Apple.

That being said, Apple as an on-going concern as you indicated needs to increase unit sales to generate higher revenue and profit to justify its stock price.

Since stockprice is a function of perceived apprecation based on many metrics, stock price is often based on future earnings and forecast and the ability to meet/beat those forecasts.

Not a shareholder driven company? Are you insane? Every publicly traded company is shareholder driven, simple. It wouldn't be alive without it.

The part about OS X licensed, Steve Jobs gone, etc..., who do you think made those decisions?!? You are kidding yourself. The only reason that OS X is not licensed and Steve Jobs is still there because the shareholders feel that it would be more profitable the way it is... and guess what... whoever convinced them of this was right. Have you seen their stats over the last years?

But I will agree with you that they do really need to start justifying it. It's been an ongoing thing for 10 years now, and it'd be interesting to see them fall in line.